The First Day For A Kansas University Freshman

What a world! This story is for myself and anyone else who believes in strange things. What started out as a day to work on projects, turned into a 45 minute drive to Kansas University, again. This was day five of campus visits and I was starting to get noticed as an intruder. Books had to be returned and unfortunately, I held the receipt in my purse. It was hard on both of us. When the baby leaves home, everyone freaks. Especially when we finish each other's sentences and phone at moments of crisis with perfect timing. It's in these times of sadness when God steps in with a laugh.

When you're hungry, it's hard to concentrate so we decided to eat first. Pizza sounded good so we drove towards Papa Keno's. Massachussetts Street was packed. Newly paved roads with construction, kids everywhere and cars, oh my gosh, cars. The street musicans and jewelry artists distracted me so I missed the restaraunt. No big deal, I would just turn around. I didn't turn right in time and a string of traffic got in front of us. Two stores from the pizza shop, a car had pulled out of the parking place but there were four cars in front of us. "This is for you. If that is our spot, then you'll know this is your town," I said. Scary to say, but way cool when the four other cars drove on and we pulled right into the spot. (Thankyou God) We ate outside facing the car. "Are you sure we don't have to put money into the parking meter?" I asked. "Mom, everyone else does it all the time." Suddenly, the world felt like it had turned into slow motion. I watched the officer tag my car with a yellow envelope while I swallowed my bite of pepperoni pizza. "Ma'am. That's my car! I was going to put change into the meter,"I lied. Instant karma applies to all. I laughed that God was still in charge of things. "Too late," she said.

We had to return a book and get another. While waiting for the art history book, I noticed a coupon book with a fake one hundred dollar bill. "Gee, I want one of those, only make it a real one please."I asked. The woman came back and apologized, saying they had accidentally over charged me and owed me money. Ironically, it was a crisp one hundred dollar bill. "See, if you just go with the flow, you're going to be ok," I told my daughter. Walking back to the car, I thought my job for the day was finished but once inside, she broke out in tears crying and crying. Was this the same person who danced in front of her entire student body of 2,000 during the week of play cuts? The same girl who landed her first job in a movie where she had to kiss the boyfriend in front of his real life parents? Shy is sneaky. It pokes its little head where you don't want it sometimes. We drove to the city park where we had spent many summers photographing flowers. Butterflies danced in the air and I tried to convince her that she was like them, wearing beautiful wings that wanted to fly. My big fish had turned tiny and wee. Where were her shiny scales? "This is where you're supposed to be. I can't write you a degree for film!"I coached her.

"Wanna have coffee with me in my dorm?" she sniffed. "What if someone sees me? Won't that be embarrassing?" "No, you're my best friend and I don't care." she said. The Margaret Hashinger dorm is where the artists stay. Two guys were sitting on the steps playing guitar. Heck, I wanted to live there. When we walked off the elevator and onto the eighth floor, someone yelled, "Hey, Hannah, did you get your computer fixed yet?" She was so nice, pretty and tall. Her blonde hair was loosely pulled back and she walked with such assertiveness. The three of us sat in the room and she started working on the malfunctioning computer while Hannah made coffee. She had graduated from a small town in Kansas with 52 students and had been to London for her music. When we needed a screw driver, she ran back to her room to get one and brought her cell phone. It was white and covered with butterflies! "I didn't catch your name," I asked. "Flo." "What?" "Yes, Flo, but don't call me Florida." she said. After we shared coffee and a cookie, I needed to return home. The two of them walked me to the parking lot.

"You hungry?" Flo asked. "Yeah" Hannah answered. "Let's go over to Mrs. E's before it closes!" I watched the two of them walk away laughing and was happy to see my little fish was getting her mojo back and going with the Flo! (Thankyou God)